Desktop, stream-based, information management system

ABSTRACT

A steam-based document storage and retrieval system accepts documents that are in diverse formats and come from diverse application, automatically creates document model objects describing these documents in a consistent format and associating time stamps with the documents to automatically create a main stream in chronological order. The stream, or sub-streams meeting selected search criteria, are displayed in a variety of forms, including a receding, partly overlapping stack with aids that facilitate user interaction.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Rule 1.53 (b) continuation of Ser. No. 12/966,809filed Dec. 13, 2010, which in turn is a Rule 1.53 (b) continuation ofSer. No. 11/528,070 filed Sep. 26, 2006 and now U.S. Pat. No. 7,865,538,which in turn is a Rule 1.53 (b) continuation of U.S. application Ser.No. 09/892,385 filed Jun. 26, 2001 now abandoned, which in turn is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/398,611filed Sep. 17, 1999 and now U.S. Pat. No. 6,638,313, which in turn is aRule 1.53 (b) continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/673,255 filed Jun. 28, 1996 and now U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,227, andhereby incorporates by reference said prior applications in theirentireties, as though fully set forth herein.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE OF MATERIAL ON COMPACT DISC

This patent specification incorporates by reference the contents of thecompact disc attached hereto in duplicate (Copy 1 and Copy 2). Each discis labeled in accordance with Rule 1.53(e)(6), with the collective namesScopeware 2.0 and Vision 1.0. The date of creation of the files on thedisc is Jun. 25, 2001. The computer code on the compact disc wasgenerated from correspondingly named source code. The names ofindividual files on the disc within these collective names, as well asthe size of the individual files, are identified in the list of filesattached to the Transmission Letter In Accordance with 37 C.F.R.§1.52(e)(ii). The contents of the compact disc submitted herewith induplicate and the contents of the list of files attached to saidTransmission Letter are hereby incorporated by reference in thisapplication as though fully set forth herein.

FIELD

This patent specification is in the field of systems for handlinginformation by computer and more specifically relates to an enhancedsystem for handling heterogeneous items of information to store, manage,customize, organize and/or deliver such information regardless of itssource and type in particularly efficient, easy-to-use, and intuitivelyunderstood.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

Traditional information management systems store and retrieve documentson the basis of attributes such as the name and storage location of adocument. This, however, can get very unwieldy in typical usage, as moreand more names and locations of documents become a part of the storageand retrieval scheme. Although it is possible in some cases to search ororder documents by other attributes, such as content and time ofcreation or revision, it may still be necessary to specify which filefolders, directories, or storage devices to search. If a user no longerremembers how a particular item of information was stored in atraditional system, it may be difficult or impractical to retrieve itefficiently.

In an effort to alleviate these and other concerns with traditionalstorage and retrieval systems, and to provide a more effective andnatural approach that better fits the way people tend to work with andthink of items of information, a new system described herein usesapproaches that rely primarily on an intuitive, time-associated way ofdealing with information. The system is stream-based in that it createstime-ordered streams of information items or assets, beginning with theoldest and continuing through current and on to future items. Aninformation item or asset in this system can be any type—a file, anemail message, bookmark, IRL, memo, draft, scanned image, calendar note,photo, shopping list, voicemail, rolodex or business card, a video clip,etc. When a user tunes in a stream, ordinarily a receding parade ofdocuments appears on the screen. The closest are nearest in time. When anew document arrives, for example when a new email message comes in, itappears at the head of the stream, at the front of the parade. (When anewer message arrives, it steps in front of the parade.) Further-awaydocuments are older.

Ordinarily, a user stands at the line current in time and looks into thepast, but the stream also extends into the future. If the user has ameeting next Tuesday at 10 AM, a note to that effect goes into thestream's future, and a note about a meeting Wednesday goes in the streamin front of the note about next Tuesday. Documents in the stream flowsteadily onward, as time does. Documents in the future part of thestream flow toward the present; documents in the present flow toward thepast. Newly arriving documents push older documents further into thepast.

The receding parade of documents is an efficient way to presentinformation on a computer screen. The display uses foreshortening for aperspective effect to pack more information into limited space. For easybrowsing, when the user touches a document on the screen with thecursor, a summary of that document with a thumbnail vies appearsimmediately, without requiring clicking or other user action, as abrowse card—a dedicated small window besides the receding parade of timeordered documents. The user controls the displayed stream with VCR-typecontrols, to move forward or back, to go toward or to the beginning orthe end of time in the stream, to now, or to any date or time, past orfuture.

An item of information in a stream need not be given a name, or adesignation of storage location. In a traditional system, a requirementthat all documents have names can have implications beyond the necessityof inventing and remembering names. For example, emails may not havenames of their own but may need to be stashed inside some other file; tosearch for an email the user may need to go to this special mail fileand search that file. In the system disclosed here, items of informationsuch as emails do not need to be named and can be searched along withany other types of information items.

Searches in the disclosed system can be by a combination of threemethods, search, browse, and time-order.

Time-order in itself often makes it possible to locate documents. Oftenthe user needs a document that showed up recently, this morning, or twodays ago, or at some time that can be pinned down with some degree ofaccuracy. Time-order together with browsing through the stream (and itsglance views) makes it possible to glance quickly through the documentsthat are from the approximate time of interest and quickly pull out theright one. (While traditional systems can time-order documents it oftenis difficult to intersperse in the list all recent emails, news updates,bulletin-board postings, URLs and other documents, let alone voicemailmessages. Without a browse feature for a stream as disclosed herein,such a list can be of little value, whereas with browse and anall-encompassing stream that gets updated promptly with new material,one can sweep over large numbers of documents, get instance glances(summary, thumbnail, etc.) of each and find the right one fast.)

When searching in a stream in the disclosed system, the user gets a newstream—a substream. One can search on any word or phrase, as every wordin every document is indexed, on document types and metadata, and ontime-related data (e.g., show me all email from last March). If the usersearches for an entity called Schwartz Bottling, the new substream willthe narrative or documentary history of all dealings with thatentity—first contacts, subsequent internal documents or communications,reports, calendar items, and so on.

A substream in the disclosed system is in some ways similar to a folderor directory in a traditional system. Instead of a “Schwartz Bottling”folder in which the user has put documents by so naming them, he/she hascreated a substream with those document, and can save it for later useor create it again as needed. The substream can do all a folder can butis much more powerful than a folder. A substream collects documentsautomatically; the use r has to put documents in a folder by hand, oneby one. A substream can persist in that it continues to trap newlycreated or received documents that match it. If a user looks at the“Schwartz Bottling” substream tomorrow, she/he may find it has grown toinclude a new email or other documents that were interspersedautomatically. A substream can tell a story, and include the future. Asubstream is non-exclusive, in that a document can belong to manysubstreams. A folder in a traditional system imposes on computers manyof the obsolete, irrelevant limitations of a physical filing cabinetdrawer or folder. A substream is an organizational tool that can makemore efficient use of computer characteristics than an analog of filingan retrieving physical documents.

One reason for the efficiency of the disclosed system is that it handlesall types of different documents, or items of information, inessentially the same way, even if the document is of a type or formatunknown to the system. Each document when created, received or otherwiseencountered is treated consistently according to a universal DocumentObject Model (DOM). As described below in more detail, the systemprocesses the document to create its Document Object Modes that includesvarious aids such as significant information about the documentincluding items such as summary, type of document, thumbnail of thedocument, who is the document's owner, who has permission to access thedocument, keywords, command options, time stamp, index, etc. Thiscreation of a document's DOM is done automatically, although the usercan aid the process. It can be done by a translator agent orprogrammatically.

The system creates a glance view or browse card of each document thathas the same overall format to make searching for and working with adocument more intuitive but also is specific to the documents in manyways. One important difference from traditional systems is that thebrowse card has command buttons that match the type of documents. Whilethe command set for traditional systems may use the same command buttonset for different types of documents, in the disclosed system thecommand set that shows in the displayed browse card is specific to thedocument—it has the unique combination of command buttons that makesense for that document. The command buttons unique to the browse cardcan be shown on the card itself or separately.

The browse card comes on the screen automatically when the cursor isover the corresponding document in the displayed stream; the user neednot take any other action such as clicking on the document or taking anaction calling a program that can open or work with the document.

The universal DOM of a document is created automatically as a newdocument of any type is added to the basic stream of information items.It is done for any existing, legacy documents, when the system is firstinstalled on a computer, and is done as any additional documents arecreated or otherwise come in. Metadata such as owner, date, accesspermission and keywords are created as part of this automatic process.

Access permission is a part of a document's metadata, so permissionlevels need have the constraints of traditional information handlingsystems where a group or an individual typically has access to alldocuments in a particular folder or directory, or has a particular typeof access to a folder.

Search results are integrated into a substream, at the right place, whenand as they become available. The user can start using an incompletesubstream and watch it build up. If the search must extend over a numberof computers or even servers, and some are unavailable at the time, theresults that come in when any become available are integrated into thesubstream at the right places.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a screen that can serve as a default view when asoftware product according to a preferred embodiment is opened on acomputer; the labels that are added are not normally a part of thedisplayed screen.

FIGS. 2-8 are flowcharts illustrating processes in an example of apreferred embodiment.

FIGS. 9 and 10 are examples of configurations in a preferred embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates a default screen seen on a PC or other equipmentworking with the disclosed system. It can show up upon turning on thecomputer, or upon calling the disclosed system. As seen in FIG. 1, thescreen illustrates a receding stream of documents, with the most recentdocuments at the front. Passing the cursor over a document in the streamcauses that document's “glance view” or “browse card” to appear on thescreen. The glance view of a document is so labeled in FIG. 1. Thescreen also includes the following features appropriately labeled inFIG. 1: (a) the Search Field is an area in which the user can type oneor more words for which the system will search in documents (informationassets) in the displayed part of the stream and/or in additionalinformation assets that might not be displayed; (b) the Main Menu iswhere the user sets preferences, finds help information, logs out,and/or performs other operations; (c) the Header contains informationsuch as links, command buttons and choice boxes used to navigate; (d)the Stream View Options allow the user to configure the presentation ofthe stream of information assets; (e) the Document Glance allows quickscanning of information assets that are visible on the screen, andpresentation of more detailed information on the selected informationasset; (f) the Type Glyphs identify the nature of an information assetat a glance (e.g., a Word document); and (g) the Thumbnails is a graphicrepresentation of the type of document (e.g., an audio file, an email,an event, etc.). The User Guide published by the assignee hereof (a copyis submitted concurrently with the filing of this application with anIDS form) further describes the operation of a relevant example and,together with the programs contained in the compact disc submittedherewith, provides a more detailed disclosure of a preferred embodiment.

Certain particularly novel features of the disclosed system aredescribed below by reference to flowcharts and block diagrams. Moredetailed information on a particular example of implementation of theseand other features of the system are evident from the software on theattached compact disc, which is the best mode known to the inventors atthe time of filing this patent application.

FIG. 2 illustrates creation of a universal data object model of adocuments in accordance with a preferred embodiment. This is animportant part of the disclosed system that helps make possible theefficient handling of heterogeneous document types in a manner thatusers find easy and intuitive. A document object model (DOM) can bethought of as a document shell of the information asset (IA) thatcontains, anon other items, a thumbnails of the information asset,permission rights, and metadata. The DOM is created from the IA and isstored in a desktop computer and/or a server, either independently ofthe IA itself or with a replica (copy) of the IA. From there, the systemmakes the DOM (with a pointer to its IA or replicated IA) to the desktopuser or to users that have access to the document through some computerconnection.

As seen in FIG. 2, the process of creating a DOM starts with theuploading at step S201 of information assets (documents) through abrowser or a client software application, or step S202 with uploadingusing a software application agent called Doc Feeder in a specificembodiment of the disclosed system. At the following steps, which neednot be performed in the order of their description below, a DOM of theIA is created. The IA uploaded at step S201 or S202 can comprisestructured or unstructured data. At step S203 the process determines thecontent type of the IA, e.g., if it is a type that the systemrecognizes. If it is, the system includes content-type specific metadatain the document's DOM: MIME/content type information, a glyph of theapplication that creates/views the content-type, and/or the systemassigns other content-type data to the DOM shell. If step S203determines that the IA is an unknown content type, it assigns to the DOMa content-type for “unknown content-type.”. Step S204 extracts text fromthe information asset, for example, in a text document, this stepextracts the text of the document. Step S205 extracts text that may notbe within but may be associated with the information asset, for example,the time stamp of the document, the owner of the document, and possiblyother textual information that is or can be associated with thedocument. Other possible examples are attributes of the IA such as filereference path, database/repository path, file metrics such as size,encryption, other identification information, etc. Step S206 generates athumbnail picture of the IA. The thumbnail can be a reduced-size pictureof the document, for example of the first page, and can be converted toa graphic image format. Other examples of thumbnails are JPEG, MPEG,BMP, GIF, AVI, or other still or moving image files representative ofsome aspect of the IA. Step S207 produces an automatic summary of theIA, e.g., a replica of its first 500 words, or first 10 sentences, orsome other information copied or otherwise derived from the IA. StepS208 creates a permission list unique to the IA that defines the ownerof the IA (e.g., its creator), and lists of people or entities andgroups that can access the IA or the DOM of that IA for reading and/orwriting purposes. This permission list can be defined by the user forthe particular IA or for a class of IAs, or can be createdautomatically, e.g., by software agents called Doc Feeder or Crawlingagent in a particular embodiment of the described system, or byprogrammatic mapping such as LDAP, Active Directory, NTDS or some othermapping. Alternatively, at least for some documents, the permission listcan be default setting.

Step S209 assigns keywords to the information asset. The software agentsDoc Feeder or Crawler can assign keywords, and the user can manuallyassign or add keywords. Step S210 generates and assigns to the IA aGlobally Unique Document ID, e.g. as 64 bit code unique to the IA. StepS211 determines and assigns to the IA document operations that areunique to the IA. Depending on the IA, these operations or commandbuttons can be basic, such as “View” and “Reply.” They can becontent-specific, such as “Play” for multimedia information assets. Theycan be solution-specific, such as “Fax” of Purchase.” They can beuser-specific, such as “Delete” allowed to only certain users. Animportant point is that the operations or command buttons assigned to aparticular IA match the IA and need not be the same for differentinformation assets, as is the typical case with traditional informationmanagement systems. Step S212 assigns optional operations or commandbuttons to the IA. They include, for example, commands to send the IA toan optical character recognition (OCR) service that can be a separateservice, IP, HTTP-based or an asynchronous operation. Alternatively, theoptional operation can be another OCR operation that can perform OCR ona selected part of the IA, or on digital graphic portions or can involvemulti-part associations. At step S213, the information asset issubmitted to an indexing engine (asynchronous service) Again, this canbe a separate service, IP, HTTP-based. This step can index all orselected fields of the IA, including but not limited to the IA summary,title, permissions, IA text, keywords, time, metadata, and content-type.At step S214 the DOM created as described above is submitted to astorage service. This can be a database that is a file reference with apointer to the actual location of the IA on a network or a local filesystem, or it can be a database that contains the actual IA in arepository such as a user's computer or a centralized repository. Thedocument object model so generated is made available for use in stepS215.

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate methods of creating document object models frominformation assets. As seen in FIG. 3, three type of information assetsare involved—new information assets 301, modified information assets301, and deleted information assets 303. All come to a file system 304.At step S305, agents specific to the disclosed embodiment of the systemknown as Scopeware 2.0 translate the IA into a DOM, i.e., create a DOMshell for the IA, with attributes as discussed in connection with FIG.2. At step S306, Scopeware agents translate the IA modifications into anupdated DOM and time-stamp the change so the new time-stamp becomes apart of the DOM and the modified IA can be places in the stream ofdocuments at a place reflecting the new time-stamp. At step S307,Scopeware agents execute actions for removing the deleted IA from therepository of documents. The display, such as that seen in FIG. 1reflects the actions takes at steps S305, S306 and S307. As a result ofstep S305, the stream on the display shows at 308 the new IA (providedthe time period where the new IA fits is being displayed). As a resultof step S306, the modified IA appears at 309 in its correct place in thedisplayed receding stream of documents. As a result of step S307, thedeleted documents is removed at 310 from the displayed stream, and theremaining. In FIG. 4, a programmatic information system received new,modified and deleted information assets for storage and distribution toappropriate translation agents as illustrated. In other respects, theFIG. 4 arrangement corresponds to that of FIG. 3, so the description ofcorresponding portions will not be repeated.

At least some of the document object model created as described abovebecomes a part of a glance view or browse card of the type illustratedin FIG. 1. An important feature of the system disclosed here is toconveniently display such a glance view in a natural and intuitivelyaccepted way to facilitate operations.

Traditional user interfaces for computers typically present lists orgraphical icons of “documents” (including but not limited to computerfiles, emails, web pages, images and other types of electronicinformation). These lists and icon displays provide only a limitedamount of information about the document—typically, title andapplication type only, although additional information as well in somecases. This can make it difficult for users to identify the documentwithout downloading and/or opening the document with its associatedapplication. For example, in Windows 2000, the user interface displays asmall temporary pop-up window of the document's title, application type,author and size when the user hovers his cursor on the document icon;however, the pop-up window appears only after a brief delay, usually 1-2seconds and is for documents that are on the screen at the time, whichtend to be a small part of the many documents typically stored in oraccessible through a user's computer.

In contrast, the disclosed system creates a pop-up window forheterogeneous documents of known and unknown application types thatappears instantly, as perceived by the user, as he/she hovers the cursorover the document's representation in the user interface. In the exampleof FIG. 1, this representation is an index card in a cascading flow ofoverlapping index cards (called “browse cards”), and the pop-up windowis called a “glance view”. This glance view not only contains thedocument's title, application type and owner, but also may contain richmultimedia cues (such as a thumbnail image of the first page of thedocument, a WAV or MP3 preview of an audio file, or an animated GIFpreview of a video file), text summaries and document operationsspecific to the document's application type and access permissions. Forexample, if the user has write permission for a document, the “Edit”operation will be visible and available; however, if not, the Editoperation will not be visible or available. These document operationsare interactive, allowing users to select available operations directly.

Referring to FIG. 5 for an illustration of the instantaneously dynamic,tailored, and interactive document glance view feature of the disclosedsystem, at S501 a user hovers his or her computer cursor over adocument's browse card. Essentially instantly, at least as perceived bythe user, and without any mouse clicking or other action on the part ofthe user, step S502 processes the information needed for a glance viewto appear on the screen, and at S503 the glance view appears next to thebrowse card, using a technology such as Dynamic HTML. If the user clickson a document's browse card, as detected by the test at step S504, andas executed by the user at S505, step S506 causes the glance view tobecome fixed and step S507 causes it to remain in the display. Theglance view does not change until the user clicks on another document'sbrowse card. If the user does not click on any browse card, asdetermined by the test of step S504, the glance view will instantlychange as the user moves his cursor over other browse cards, to reflectthe glance view of the underlying browse card. If the user has clickedon a browse card to fix the glance view as a stationary window, the usercan then select any of the visible and available document operations, bytaking the “yes” branch of step S508 and selecting at S509 an availableoperation (as earlier described, the operations or command buttons thatshow are specific to the document). At step S510 the system executes theselected operation (command) and the display reflects this at S511. Ifat step S508 the user takes the “no” branch, she can continue to hoverthe cursor over the stream of browse cards and repeat the process, atstep S512. If at S504 the system determines that the user has notclicked to fix a glance view, the glance view information essentiallyinstantly changes at S513 as the user moves the cursor over other browsecards, and the new glance views appear on the screen at S514.

FIG. 6 illustrates a process involving another important feature of thedisclosed system—granular permissions for access to information assetsthat allows clients to receive seamless and uniform access to contentswithout necessitating changes to existing network security and accessrights. In traditional systems, a network administrators typically wouldgrant access to specific network drives and file folders. The permissiontypically would allow a user to access the entire folder or drive, orwould deny access to an entire folder or drive, rather than to aparticular information asset or document.

In the disclosed system, each information asset is accessible throughspecific access permission for each client or designated group ofclients. Examples of access stage permissions are read, write, andaware. Read permissions allow a client to view the full informationasset. Write permissions allow the client to view and edit the'document.Aware permission alerts the client that an information asset exists, forexample by providing a document shell in the client's stream ofdocuments, but does not allow the client to view or edit the document. Agroup of clients who want to collaborate on a project or event canestablish a designated group that can be assigned permissions torelevant documents for the project or event. Thus, each member canreceive real-time additions to his or her stream of documents andinformation assets are posted. The clients can assign permission to theother group members themselves, by so designating the appropriatedocuments to be shared, without involving a network administrator. Somedocuments, such as personal to-do lists, can be accessible only to aspecified user, but the user can change this at any time to allowaccess, full or partial, to other designated persons. Assignments ofpermissions for access can be done as granularly as an individual clientlevel or individual document, or as diffuse as a departmental orenterprise level.

As seen in FIG. 6, an information asset 601 can have permission levelsassigned to it in several ways. At step S602, a software agent such asDoc Feeder can automatically assign permissions; at step S603 aprogrammatic system such as SDAP, Active Directory, Access ControlLists, NT DS, of some other system assigns permissions to the document;and/or at step S604 the user manually assigns permissions to thedocument. Examples of processes relevant to different types ofpermissions are: step S605 grants access to all public users of thesystem; step S606 assigns permissions to groups as illustrated; stepS607 assigns permissions to specific groups as illustrated, and stepS608 freezes permissions and does not allow the document to be changed.The display, of the type illustrated in FIG. 1, can provide informationrepresentative of the permissions, as illustrated at steps S609 throughS612 in FIG. 6.

Another important feature of the disclosed system is illustrated in FIG.7 and pertains to integrating search results from distributed searches.In traditional systems, search requests in a client/server model with acentral index usually return a single, well-defined results set. In apeer-to-peer network, however, search results may come back to the“Source” computer (the computer that issues the search query) in ahaphazard manner because of network latency (variable traffic speed andbandwidth across a distributed network) and variable peer presence (peercomputers can be turned on and off, or removed from network at times).

The disclosed system asynchronous responses to a distributed queryacross a peer-to-peer network of computers to integrate the results fromdiverse sources, arriving at different times, and comprising diversetypes of documents, into a single unified results set. One preferredembodiment leverages the time-ordered presentation interface earlierdescribed in so that search results are integrated into a time-orderedstream according to each document's original time-stamp, regardless ofwhen the document's search results set was received by the Sourcecomputer.

As seen in FIG. 7, at step 701 a user at a Source computer selects peercomputers (“Peers”) across which the distributed search will beperformed. If the test at S703 determines that there is no centralregistry with peer hookup, and the test at S704 determines there is nouser-specified IP address of peers, the process returns to S701, wherethe user can specify addresses or they can be provided in some otherway. The central registry with lookup of Peers can involveOnline/offline status, IP/DNS resolution service and Optionalpublic/private key authentication. When the test at S703 or at S704leads to the “yes” branch, at step S705 the Source computer sends out asearch request that travels to each selected Peer in the network. AtS706, each Peer that receives the search request queries its index fordocuments that match the search criteria, and at S707 the peer computerthen sends its results set back to the Source computer. The response canbe XML-based, a binary byte stream, or an in-band and out-of-bandtransfer. At S708 the Source computer takes the results set from eachPeer and builds a single collective results set. In a preferredembodiment, this collective results set is organized as a time-orderedstream of documents, as seen in FIG. 1. This can involves an on-the-flybrowser combination with XML & XSL with time-sort algorithm, XML topresentation layer with time-sort algorithm, and in-band and out-of-bandtransfer. Importantly, at S709, the Source computer continues to expandthis collective results set, essentially in real time as it receivesadditional results sets from Peers until all Peers have responded orsome other relevant event has taken place. At S710, the collectiveresults are displayed as soon as results have come in at the Sourcecomputer, and the display is updated as additional results come in, evenwhen a Peer that was off-line comes on line and sends results at a latertime.

Yet another feature of the disclosed system is a particularly convenienttri-state tree. In a single scrolling tree directory of the contents ofa hard drive (or hard drives in a network), a user may want to select“Parent Folders” (folders containing subfolders) and “Child Folders”(subfolders contained within a folder) that can be further operated on.This feature allows users to select folders in one or more of thefollowing combinations:

1. All Parent Folders and all Child Folders

2. Some Parent Folders and all their Child Folders

3. Some Parent Folders and some of their Child Folders

4. No Parent Folders and no Child Folders (the do nothing option)

This selection tree has useful application beyond the particular exampleof information handling disclosed here; it can be used to select foldersfor any computer operation. For example, it can enable users todiscretely select software application or operating system components toinstall or remove.

A single scrolling tree directory of Parent and Child Folders that canexpand and contract to show the contents of Parent and Child Folders isknown—Microsoft Windows Explorer is an example of one. A Tri-StateSelection mechanism also is known—Microsoft Add/Remove WindowsComponents is an example of another way of selecting various Parent andChild Folders. However, the Microsoft Add/Remove Windows Componentsfeature does not display all Parent and Child Folders within a singlescrolling tree directory; Child Folder and other contents of a ParentFolder are displayed in a separate window only after the user clicks ona Details button. In addition, only the contents of one Parent Foldercan be displayed at a time.

The Tri-State Selection Tree described here combines the elements of asingle scrolling tree directory with a tri-state selection mechanism ina new and unique way to enable users to discretely select specificParent and/or Child Folders all in one single view.

Referring to FIG. 8 for an illustration, at step S801 a user is firstpresented with a tree directory of the highest level of Parent Folderson a hard drive or network. At S802 the user can expand the treedirectory to show Child Folders by clicking on a plus/minus sign next toeach Parent Folder, and the directory so expands at S803. At S804, thedisplay shows a check box next to each Parent Folder (e.g., to the rightof the plus/minus sign). By default, all check boxes are empty,indicating that no Parent or Child Folders are selected. If at step S805the user clicks on a check box once, the process at step S806 selectsthe marked“/” Parent Folder but none of its Child Folders are selected,and step S807 shows this on the display. If at step S808 the user clicksthe check box a second time, the slash mark is replaced by an “X” andall the Child Folders' check boxes are then selected and grayed out atS809, indicating that all Child Folders are selected for that ParentFolder, and this is displayed at S810.

Thus, by expanding the tree and clicking on check boxes, the user cansystematically and efficiently select a discrete number of folders onwhich to perform an operation.

Yet another feature of the disclosed system is an arrangement of aredundant array of inexpensive servers (RAIS). Processing of a large setof information or document requires benefits of a centralizedarchitecture—reliability and scalability, and RAIS is a novel approachto provide benefits of a centralized architecture—namely reliability andscalability with numerous inexpensive computers. Thus, RAIS can deliveressentially infinite scalability, can allow inexpensive smallercomputers to be used to solve enterprise computational problems ratherthen expensive larger platforms, cheaper/faster.

For example, consider:

Set of Information, D, with specific documents D1, D2, D3; D{D1,D2,D3}

RAIS of N×N size here with N=3; RowN,ColN

Replication factor is number of columns

Scalability factor is number of rows

-   -   1. Here N=3, with 9 computers

Col1 Col2 Col3 Row1 A A A Row2 B B B Row3 C C C

-   -   2. To post a Document, Dn, one copy is sent to a sub-server in        each ColN, so

Col1 Col2 Col3 Row1 A(Dn) A(Dn) A(Dn) Row2 B B B Row3 C C C

-   -   3. Thus Dn is replicated N times (N=3) and thus if Col1:Row1        computer is unavailable there are two other computers with the        same Dn. This is RAIS replication.    -   4. To post a universe, or set of documents, D{D1,D2,D3}, can use        simple (round-robin) or complex (latency, closest path, spanning        tree) routing, sending each document to a different RowN.

Col1 Col2 Col3 Row1 A(D1) A(D1) A(D1) Row2 B(D2) B(D2) B(D2) Row3 C(D3)C(D3) C(D3)

-   -   5. Thus to reassemble the entire universe or set of documents,        D, need to send a request to each RowN. To reconstruct, D, for        an N×N RAIS requires N request/responses.    -   6. Multiple smaller requests can be used instead of one mammoth        request. This reduces latency, bandwidth and process        constraints. This is RAIS scalability.    -   7. Note that any one of the computers in Row1 can be used to        re-construct the total set D found in Col1. For example, if        Row1:Col1 computer is unavailable, then Row1:Col3 computer has a        copy of the data. In fact, D is can be constructed from any        arrangement that completes a COIN.    -   8. To increase either replication or scalability simply increase        N.        -   Scopeware Software Agents, either desktops or servers, can            be installed on each computer in a RAIS matrix to achieve            this functionality.

The disclosed system can be implemented in a variety of ways in terms ofphysical information storage—for example, physical information storagecan be centralized or decentralized. Decentralized storage, physicalstorage of information with multiple servers and/or clients, is possiblethrough network agents called Doc Feeders, which may be located at aserver or client level. The Doc Feeder allows a storage location of aclient, for example a file folder on a desktop hard drive, to beincluded in the system level data repository for use throughout anorganization or enterprise. Depending upon implementation, the DocFeeders can replicate the information asset (IA) to a server or maintaina constant pointer to the physical storage location while populating thesystem with the document object model (DOM). As earlier described, a DOMis a document shell of the IA that contains, among other items, athumbnail of the IA, permission rights, and metadata. A DOM is createdfrom the IA and placed on the Scopeware server, either independent ofthe IA or with a replication of the IA. From there, the Scopeware serverwill share the DOM (with constant pointer to the IA or replicated IA)with other connected system servers and clients in order to make the IAavailable to all clients connected to the network. Thus, the systemservers and network agents (Doc Feeders) act as document proxies forboth storage and retrieval of IAs.

In addition, the system servers within the network need not bephysically close in proximity. For example, a client in a truly globalorganization with locations and system servers on several continents canquery and retrieve sales results across all system servers and clientsthrough a federated search. In essence, the disclosed system creates avirtual store from all documents accessible to any system server orclient either centralized or decentralized.

The physical information storage of the disclosed system follows threemodels: duplication, replication, and document reference. Theduplication model physically stores a duplicate IA on the parentScopeware server that was created by the client. Other clients pollingthe parent Scopeware server have full access to the IA, depending uponpermissions, whether or not the original document is available from itsnative storage location (i.e. client PC is turned off). The replicationmodel replicates the IA from the parent Scopeware server to the peerScopeware servers within a federated network. All clients within thefederated network have full access to the IA, depending uponpermissions, whether or not the original document is available from itsnative storage location (i.e. client PC is turned off). An example ofthe replication model is the concept of a redundant array of inexpensiveservers. This concept, which is described in detail in the distributedenterprise model, utilizes client machines in place of a singe server.The document reference model “parks” only a DOM of the IA on allScopeware servers and maintains a constant pointer to the actualphysical location of the IA rather than storing a full copy of the IA onthe Scopeware server. Other clients will only be able to gain access tothe IA when the physical location of the IA is connected to the network(i.e. client PC is turned on).

There are to primary types of streams in accordance with the disclosedsystem: Bottom-Up and Top-Down. Through the use of both Bottom-Up andTop-Down methodologies, Scopeware creates a living stream for the clientwith new DOMs appearing automatically as content arrives. The Scopewaredistributed enterprise model can make use of both server-based resourcesand client-based resources where appropriate. Both types of streams canbe used simultaneously and interchangeably.

Bottom-Up streams are comprised of information collaboration formed byad-hoc groups of Scopeware clients. A bottom-up stream is composed ofinformation created by the clients of a transitory group. Informationshared and created by this group is be replicated via point-to-pointconnections (i.e. from client PC to client PC). In this way, bottom-upgroups can form and disperse frequently, and without notification, whileits members will still have access to the shared information. FIG. 9illustrates this configuration.

Top-Down streams are more permanent, generally more administrativestreams or collections of information, such as company-wide distributionlists, or groups like ‘Accounting’ and ‘Development’. In these groups,information is “parked” to the server from the desktop. The server thensends the information to other known servers. Each client maintains apolling connection to the server to retrieve “parked” documents thathave recently arrived from other remote servers or from local clients.FIG. 10 illustrates this configuration.

As earlier described, the user interface within the Scopeware productportfolio has unique characteristics. The DOM provides certaininformation that allows quick perusal of the information retrievalresults via a proprietary “browse card” or “glance view” which issimilar to an index card that contains data on the underlying IA. Aunique “browse card” or “glance view” is created for each IA. The“browse card” or “glance view” includes metadata for the document, whichis comprised of a title, identification number unique to Scopewaredocument referencing, date/time stamp, and owner information. The“browse card” or “glance view” also presents a thumbnail image of the IAand a summary of the IA contents. Finally, the “browse card” or “glanceview” contains a list of operations appropriate for the IA's applicationthat include, but are not limited to, copy, forward, reply, view, andproperties.

The “browse card” or “glance view” arrives in the stream of thoseclients that have permission to view the IA. The owner can grant accessto other clients or groups by granting read, write, or aware permissionsthrough the properties of the “browse card” or “glance view.” Permissioncan be granted as granular as an individual-by-individual basis from theDOM, or through predetermined administrative groups via the Scopewareserver.

The “browse card” or “glance view” is presented in a time-orderedsequence starting in the present going back into the past. The “browsecard” or “glance view” is available in a number of views. The primaryview is the stream. Other formats include a grid, Q, list, andthumbnails. The various views address the client's personal preferencesfor accessing time-ordered content in their most logical way. Theseviews all contain the information presented in a “browse card” or“glance view” but are organized in a different method. Other specializedviews include the address book and calendar.

An advantage of the “browse card” or “glance view” approach is the easeof browsing, searching, and retrieving IAs. In the stream view, the“browse card” or “glance view” of each IA are aligned much like cards ina recipe box. For each item, the title and application icon are viewableon the “browse card” or “glance view” in the stream. When the clientpasses over the “browse card” or “glance view” in the stream with themouse pointer, the full “browse card” or “glance view” is presented tothe client for easy viewing. From the “browse card” or “glance view,”the client can perform any of the aforementioned actions available tothe IA, subject to permission access.

The disclosed system is suitable for a number of computing modelsservicing multiple clients including a single departmental server model,an enterprise server model, a distributed enterprise model, and apeer-to-peer model (absent a dedicated Scopeware server or commonserver). In addition, the software enables wireless computingindependent of or in conjunction with any or all of the aforementionedmodels. Wireless clients include WAP enabled phones, PDAs, Pocket PCs,and other similarly capable devices capable of receiving andtransmitting data across a network. All of the Scopeware ImplementationModels make use of the components previously discussed, providingconsistent interface available across different computing topologies,from monolithic single servers to peer-to-peer collaboration.

Access to the IA contained in the Scopeware repository can be achievedthrough two methods. The first method of access is through thethin-client method. The thin-client method utilizes a web browser, suchas Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Netscape's Navigator, on the clientdevice to gain access to the Scopeware repository residing on theScopeware server. The second method of access is the desktop-clientmethod. The desktop-client method involves a local installation ofScopeware on the client device. The client device is then capable ofperforming the storage, retrieval, extraction, and processing of IAs asthey are introduced to the Scopeware repository. All the models belowcan utilize either method of access to the Scopeware repository, howeverthe distributed enterprise and peer-to-peer models are optimized withthe desktop-client method.

Single Server Model. A single server model makes content on oneScopeware server available to any client connected to the departmentalserver. The Scopeware software creates a unique DOM that represents tothe user interface the relevant details of the IA physically stored bythe server or client. Thus, when a client connected to the networkrequests access to and retrieval of IAs through Scopeware, the clientcan view all documents contained within the network that satisfy thequery parameters and access restrictions regardless of the document'snative application. The documents available include those stored locallyby the client, those saved to a central storage location, and thosestored by peer clients with Doc Feeders connected to the shared server.

Enterprise Server Model. In an enterprise server model, where multipleScopeware servers are installed, federated access to and retrieval ofIAs across the network is enabled. In federated information sharing, aclient asks one Scopeware server for IAs that may reside on it or one ofmany connected peer Scopeware servers. In this model, the actual IA mayreside on any network-connected client, the Scopeware server, or acentralized data storage location. Transparent to the client, theScopeware servers shuffle the retrieval request and access restrictionsto present a single, coherent stream to the client via the presentationarchitecture previously discussed (within the original patent document).

Distributed Enterprise Model. A distributed enterprise model utilizesthe clients for storage, retrieval, and processing of IAs. Through theuse of directory monitoring agents, similar to network agents, thephysical location of an IA need not be on the Scopeware server, butrather can reside with any client. The Scopeware servers take on asecondary role as administration servers and content parking lots. Thismodel pushes the processing tasks to the clients while using the serversto shuttle IAs throughout the enterprise. The indexing engine,thumbnailing engine, lightweight storage database will be based at theclients.

Taking Scopeware beyond distributed networking and the federatedarchitecture—into a more distributed approach will be straightforward,given the way that the system has been designed. Key elements of thenext stage of deployment are distributed document processing andscalable server arrays.

Distributed document processing consists of two different approaches.First, when information was created physically on a desktop machine, butwas part of a larger application and intended for storage on a server(rather than on the desktop), the Desktop facilities could do thedocument extraction, indexing, thumbnailing, etc., and post the resultsto the Scopeware Server. Second, a Scopeware Server that was handed adocument (perhaps from an OCR process or from a central emailapplication) could hand the document off to an available ScopewareDesktop for the same processing. These strategies relieve the processingload on the Scopeware Server and leave it free to focus on handlingsearches and stream integration, allowing a given Scopeware Server tohandle a much larger user load.

When an organization needs to support central processing of largedocument bases—and needs the reliability, accessibility and security ofa centralized architecture—Scopeware Servers will support deployment ina novel architecture we have named RAIS—a redundant array of inexpensiveservers.

In this architecture, imagine a square array of desktop machines—calleach one a “sub-server.” The array as a whole comprises the ScopewareServer. (This does not require wiring together an actual array orcluster; any interconnect such as a Ethernet sub-net or even HTTP over abroader network will work.) In these arrays, columns of servers provideredundancy for storage, while rows (within columns) provide redundantpoints of distribution.

To post document D, one copy of D is sent to a sub-server in each columnof the array. To replicate everything five times such that losing anydata requires the loss of five sub-servers, five columns are used. Thenumber of columns in the array is managed to support exactly the degreeof replication (and redundancy) desired. The write processes can bemanaged in a number of ways to ensure that the different rows in thecolumns are balanced.

To send a polling message or search request (“give me all the lateststuff”), a request is sent to each sub-server in one column (note thatthe means to do this transparently to the user is an extension of thefederated search technology). Each column of sub-servers absorbs onecopy of every posting (because any write has gone into at least one rowof the column); therefore, all the sub-servers in any one columncollectively have copies of everything. Just a “replication factor,” ischosen for data redundancy, a “distribution factor” is chosen forresponsiveness and for data management, representing the number of rowsin any column. To get ten small responses to a search request instead ofone big response, or to distribute the total data-storage burden overten machines instead of one, the array is implemented with tensub-servers in every column.

The entire “Server” can be run with only one row (resulting inreplication, but no distribution) or with only one column (resulting indistribution but no replication). In the limit, row size=column size=1,and the effect is to have a single conventional server.

This approach to distributed processing, scalability and reliability forlarge applications allows arbitrary sets of “smaller” computers(single/dual processor, inexpensive memory and disk storage) to be usedin place of very large, expensive machines. This allows the applicationplatform to be designed to the reliability and access requirements ofthe particular application, and then scaled incrementally (by addingmore small machines into the array) as the actual application grows interms of users served or information managed.

Distributed document processing and server arrays will give Scopewarealmost infinite scalability while maintaining compatibility with earlysolutions or architectures. In addition to adding greater reliability,this architecture will support very large information processingapplications. This will allow enterprise-scale, top-downapplications—inbound support/sales email handling, customer service oreven IRS-scale tax document processing.

Distributed document processing (with Scopeware Desktop) could becombined with either a “conventional” (1 processor array) ScopewareServer or with a more powerful array. This will allow organizations tocreate departmental or workgroup level solutions that can grow intoenterprise applications if necessary.

At the same time, the system will allow users themselves to createself-organizing applications based on their specific and current needs.Ad hoc teams can create collaborative spaces that cross organizationalboundaries if necessary. These applications can leverage eitherScopeware Desktops or departmental-level Scopeware Servers.

Because the system has the architecture and capacity to support anylevel of centralization or decentralization concurrently, applicationsand their platforms can be engineered centrally or grown organically,and they can be tailored to the needs of their users and theorganization on an ongoing basis.

Peer-to-Peer Model. The peer-to-peer (P2P) model allows multiple clientsto share IA directly without the use of a dedicated Scopeware server.The P2P model allows for pure ad hoc collaboration among Scopewareclients. For example, a client can share IA via the Internet withidentified Scopeware clients that have permission to access IA from theclient, and vice versa. This is similar to the distributed enterpriseenvironment except the dedicated Scopeware server has been removed as astorage, retrieval, and connection mechanism. Instead, Scopeware clientswill connect point-to-point with other Scopeware clients through ageneral network connection such as the Internet.

Using P2P, a client can create a virtual shared stream that looks asthough it is stored on a server but is in fact stored only by manyclients. Historically, all clients would need access to a shared filefolder on a common server in order to share information. With Scopeware,clients can share information that is located on each other's device andare not restricted to a common server or single physical storagelocation. To illustrate, five clients of Scopeware want to create ashared virtual stream to support a project. They call their group “TeamOne.” Then, when any member of “Team One” posts a document to his or herstream, and marks it “readable by Team One,” the system automaticallysends a copy to every Scopeware client on the “Team One” list. EachScopeware client receiving this document pops it into its client's localstream. Thus information created by a client who is a member of “TeamOne” (and flagged for Team One by the owner) winds up in the localstream of every member of Team One, whether the post is a document, anevent (team meeting), task, or contact. It's as if he had sent hisposting to a “client” server, and then everyone had polled the server,but in fact there's no server.

1. A method of operating a computer facility comprising: providing acomputer facility located in one or more locations with documents inrespective formats according to respective different applicationsthrough which the provided documents are generated or modified, whichformats differ from one of the document to another for at least some ofsaid provided documents, said provided documents being delivered to thecomputer facility or generated by the computer facility; storing atleast some of the documents provided to the computer facility incomputer storage; said computer facility being configured toautomatically generate and store in computer storage respectiverepresentations related to the documents provided thereto, therebyforming a main collection of document representations; said computerautomatically generating and storing said main collection of documentrepresentations without requiring user interaction with the computerfacility separately for each of said documents for a designation by auser of a directory structure, a physical location for storage ofdocument representations or corresponding documents, or anotherpre-imposed document categorization structure; said automaticallygenerated and stored representations of said documents includingrespective automatically generated time indicators associated with thedocuments corresponding to said representations; said automaticallygenerated and stored representations of said documents further includingrespective automatically generated information relating the documentrepresentations to the respective documents provided to and stored insaid computer facility; said automatically generated and stored maincollection of document representations being unbounded in time and sizeconsistent with the bound of the computer facility and being configuredto include documents associated with time indicators related todifferent times; said automatically generated and stored main collectionof document representations requiring no fixed beginning or end andbeing non-transitory and selectively searchable by the computerfacility; providing selected search commands; causing said computerfacility to perform a first search of at least said main collection ofdocument representations according to selected first search commands, toprovide first search results, and to utilize said first search resultsto generate a first sub-collection of document representations relatedto a respective sub-collection of the documents provided to the computerfacility; selectively causing the computer facility to display on acomputer screen graphical depictions of only a first portion of saidfirst sub-collection of document representations generated by utilizingsaid first search results, said first portion corresponding to only aportion of the documents provided to and stored in the computerfacility; said first portion of said first document sub-collection ofdocument representations corresponding to a multi-document portion ofthe documents provided to and stored in said computer facility; saidcomputer facility being configured to maintain at least one of said themain collection of document representations and said firstsub-collection of document automatically responsive to events subsequentto the providing of said first search results such that additionaldocument representations corresponding to additional documents providedto the computer facility subsequent to an initial display of said firstportion of the first sub-collection of document representations andmeeting said selected search commands are automatically included in asubsequent display of graphical depictions of one or more portions ofsaid first sub-collection of document representations; and saidadditional document representations also including automaticallygenerated respective time indicators associated with the documentssubsequently provided to the computer facility.